Asteroids factories for building blocks of life: study

B.C. contains evidence that asteroids are production sites for molecules such as amino acids that form the building blocks of life, a new study
says. "What we're saying is that amino acids are actually the result of the geology happening on the asteroid," said Chris Herd, the planetary
geologist at the University of Alberta who led the study published Thursday in Science.

"It's like a little factory. It's taking even more primitive molecules that are coming in from space and doing them up a bit." He added that the
warmer temperatures in the asteroid and the presence of water and possibly certain minerals provide a better environment than interstellar space for
certain chemical reactions. Those reactions are needed to produce organic molecules, a class of carbon-based chemicals that living things are largely
made of.

Nice article about the Tagish meteorite that was found on a frozen lake in Canada. The stuff of life as we know it being produced in bare lumps of
rock orbiting fr out in the solar system and constantly bombarding all of the planets is astounding to me. If space can produce the raw materials
does it also produce that which would utilize them.

Very interesting concept too. If the building block of life are created in deep space, then there is a chance that the evolution of life begins the
same way on all planets as it is created under similar conditions. Will certainly be keeping an eye on this thread.

Originally posted by iforget
Nice article about the Tagish meteorite that was found on a frozen lake in Canada. The stuff of life as we know it being produced in bare lumps of
rock orbiting fr out in the solar system and constantly bombarding all of the planets is astounding to me. If space can produce the raw materials
does it also produce that which would utilize them.

You will have to excuse me, comets are my current specialised subject, I have just spent the last few weeks obsessively learning about them.

The Deep Impact Mission is very much worth looking at, comets are, we now know, bodies of rock, dust, and water, but also a lot of air. The report of
the results from the mission actually used the phrase, 'Souffle-like' When they dropped the impactor into Tempel1, it caused a massive plume of
material, containing an estimated 250 million litres of water. Additionally, the probe caught sight of three bodies of water-ice on the surface.

Scientists now believe that radiation may keep the water in a liquid, or near liquid state for millions of years. Some of the meteors that hit Earth
in our early development, may have, before being toasted on it's way through our atmosphere, had living bacteria within the nucleus.

Either way, meteorites brought 2/3 of all the water in our oceans to Earth. Not only that, but a phenomenon called, 'Small comets', which are
estimated to vapourise in our upper atmosphere at a rate of 10 per minute, deposit between 20 and 40 tonnes of water vapour each, and are
estimated to be adding to the Earth's water levels at a rate of 1 inch every 20,000 years. Additionally, it is interesting to note that these small
comets were first noted due to 'dark spots' appearing on satellite UV imaging reports as anomalous. These clouds seem to be very effective at
filtering out UVs.

I think that it is highly likely that both Rosetta and Osiris will come back with data that will completely change our perception of life on Earth...I
just hope that that is what is driving the Osiris mission, that 'Resource' in the full name has me suspicious that they may be a little more
interested in the Irridium.

Osiris have chosen the asteroid that they have, because there is a 1 in 1800 chance that it'll impact with the Earth in 2185. Which aren't bad
odds, though I shan't be putting a bet on...it wouldn't be decent

Thanks for that I've always thought that comets where far more interesting than asteroids, must be one of the reason I found the OP to be an eye
opener.

Often I wonder what is more miraculous the way science sees the universe operate or how, um..errr... tradition views things. Leads me right back to
my point of me seeing little difference between viewpoints other than the trappings.

Originally posted by iforget
Thanks for that I've always thought that comets where far more interesting than asteroids, must be one of the reason I found the OP to be an eye
opener.

I'll let you into a little secret, I am not entirely sure there is a difference, I can't seem to find one anyway, not a definitive one.

Originally posted by iforget
Often I wonder what is more miraculous the way science sees the universe operate or how, um..errr... tradition views things. Leads me right back to
my point of me seeing little difference between viewpoints other than the trappings.

I am really surprised more hasn't been made of the Osiris mission, it is hugely exciting for us collectively, and kind of wonder whether NASA is
overly concerned with the sensibilities of some in the US, and how much of an adjustment it may be to the way they percieve the world. Everywhere
else in the world, or rather the core beliefs of almost every ancient culture that I have checked, has some reverence for meteorites and associate
them with god or a god.

After I had been studying the subject for a few weeks, my brother returned from a two month trip to India, and told me how the Lepcha put small pieces
of meteorites at the corner of some buildings when they are built. They call them Dragon Stones and they are considered to bring good fortune.

I'll let you into a little secret, I am not entirely sure there is a difference, I can't seem to find one anyway, not a definitive one.

hmm I thought it had to do with the orbits with asteroids being in the belt between Jupiter and Mars and Comets being out in the Ort Cloud. I also
thought that comets had more volatiles, thus the tail when they approach the sun? um for the most part

I'll let you into a little secret, I am not entirely sure there is a difference, I can't seem to find one anyway, not a definitive one.

hmm I thought it had to do with the orbits with asteroids being in the belt between Jupiter and Mars and Comets being out in the Ort Cloud. I also
thought that comets had more volatiles, thus the tail when they approach the sun? um for the most part

Ah...you see, that was until they observed the impact of Shoemaker-Levy on Jupiter...that kind of has confused the matter, but only because we had no
real observed data before. Comets it seems are broken up into fragments by the gravity of the interaction between Jupiter's moons and the planet
itself...this may explain our own impacts too...so an asteroid seems as though it may just be a fragment of a comet. So different movements due to
reduced size but the same composition...they are now being designated and identified to parent comets I believe.

The extended tail or comma is a reaction with the solar winds and radiation as it passes within influence of the Sun, most of those that we see are
Kreutz Sungrazers, and are visible mainly because of the increase in tail size that increases 'brightness'. The tail, as it passes the Sun,
actually acts like a mini atmosphere, which to my mind, is primitive life is present in comets, this may be sufficient to create conditions suitable
to bring them out of stasis.

got any links or book recommendations must be I need to do some reading

Haha...believe me, my jaw hung open for a couple of obsessive compulsive weeks of study, I knew nothing. I do actually have, sadly, 14 A4 pages of
written up notes and given a day or two to take out some of my more outlandish ideas, will happily post them here if you like...they include all my
source links...

Or I could just send you my links...if you prefer...I read alot about impacts too...so that is alot of what the notes are about,
which may not interest you so much.

The Above Top Secret Web site is a wholly owned social content community of The Above Network, LLC.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.